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Newly introduced legislation would make feds’ bonuses, pensions public

By Sherkiya Wedgeworth

May 22, 2019

A Georgia congressman has introduced legislation that aims to make federal employees’ bonuses and pensions transparent.

The Federal Employee Disclosure (FED) Transparency Act, introduced by Rep. Jody Hice (R), would make all federal employee bonuses publicly available and require the disclosure of federal pension records. It would also require agencies to report any performance-based bonuses over $10,000 to Congress.

“Through the FED Transparency Act, federal agencies will no longer be allowed to operate without sufficient scrutiny or oversight of payroll practices, making spending data more reliable and accessible,” Hice said in a news release.

According to Jason Pye, the vice president of legislative affairs for FreedomWorks, federal pensions are $3.5 trillion unfunded liability to taxpayers and roughly $1.1 billion is handed out in the form of bonuses to federal employees.

“Pension records are hidden from public view, leaving taxpayers in the dark on how much someone like disgraced former IRS official Lois Lerner may receive in pension benefits,” he said.

The bill would require that Congress be given an explanation as to why bonus are awarded.

“Taxpayers have a right to know this information, and the FED Transparency Act would shed light where it’s sorely needed,” Pye added.

Reader comments

Mon, Jul 29, 2019

I believe all bonuses should be eliminated.The majority in the VA system are based on false data and routine performance. Employees look at as a yearly expectation without regards to performance
If we are looking at the overall salaries and expenitures all monies should be scrutinized especially our Congressman and Senators who spend our money on continual investigations with no passages or help with our immigration crisis or infrastructure not to mention the ongoing vacations.Term limits definitely need to be passed.

Mon, Jul 29, 2019

Hey Mr. Hice, there is currently a web site that shows this information. And the Office of Personnel Management website has the pension calculations information. They’ve been posted and publically available for many, many years. But just in case you still can't find it, the pensions are calculated as 1% of the average of employee's highest three years of salary multiplied by the number of years that person worked if he or she worked until age 60. It is calculated as 1.1% times the average of the employee's highest three years of salary multiplied by the number of years that person worked if he or she worked past age 62. That means a pension would be roughly 20% of salary for someone who is 60 years old and who worked for 20 years. If the average highest three years of pay comes to $50,000 per year, the pension at age 60 with 20 years of service will be about $834. per month before federal taxes and before Medicare payments are made. It would be roughly 22% of salary for someone who works 20 years and is 62 years or older. That $50,000 per year employee will get roughly $916. per month before federal taxes and Medicare payments are made. So federal employees won’t live large on federal pensions. No worries. And most bonuses are kind of tiny too. You’ll see if you look them up on the currently available website. Anybody can look them up and see for themselves. It's real easy to do. I hope you find this information helpful.

Mon, Jul 29, 2019

Does this include the Congressman's pay, and bonuses as well?

Mon, Jul 29, 2019

As it should be!!! What I have notice since being a fed is that co workers and I work very hard with a third of the manpower. We answer the bell and get the job done and every year we get little 300 to 750 dollar bonuses while Management hooks themselves up with huge bonuses. I get frustrated with the general public thinking that the average fed worker is sitting around all day surfing the internet when the opposite is true. The problem in the federal government is not with the rank and file workers but the managers and supervisors.

Sat, Jun 1, 2019

Congress, senate and political appointed minions consider themselves elite and should not follow simple civil service regulations. This is why a term limit and a reduction of 90% in salary and benefits should be enacted so that these minions do not make a career out of bilking the tax payers.